NXT24 wave setup

[BBFOX514]

Hello,
I'm new to all this and recently purchased a new NXT24. I want some feedback on how people are setting up their up similar boats for a great wave. I have done some experimenting and found that even with all stock ballast full I still need more as I am a bigger guy at 230lbs and these boats love weight. With weight of people and gear I have found that I might need between 1200 and 1600 lbs of extra weight in addition to stock ballast. I have had tab settings of 0-0-80 to 100. Please chime in with what you have found to work with similar boats.

[TolCarMan]

Can't comment on the NXT24 specifically, but I know that on my XT23 less tab = bigger wave. I usually surf with the stbd. tab at 40 and the other tabs up. Speed 11.0. I have my profile set up to drain 10% out of the stbd. tank to give me a slight list to port. I also have 400# lead- 200# in the rear, 100# midship and 100# in the bow, all equally distributed port/stbd.

For you I'd recommend going out and experimenting a little. I would initially set your boat up with a slight list to the surf side. I would then get up to speed with your tab at 100 and gradually reduce it until your wave washes out. You'll then know the minimum tab percentage your boat can produce a wave with. The less tab = bigger wave rule applies to every boat out there. Another general rule is more speed = more push and length, less speed = taller wave and less push. Kind of counter-intuitive. I find a happy medium to be around 11.0 but it depends on the boat and personal preference.

Still waiting for UT to warm up and all of our (needed) snow to melt. Bring on summer!

[BBFOX514]

TolCarMan,
Thank you for all your advice and this is exactly what I'm looking for. I never knew about running tabs down to wash then back up a little is how to find min/max values for tabs. Do you know if your hull on XT is similar to NXT? How much total weight do you usually run including all ballast and people? I ask this because my weight can swing a large amount depending if it's just my wife pulling me or if I have 9 other people in boat so getting total weight is best way I know to keep weight consistent. I think my stock ballast is around 3k lbs so I add from there.

[TolCarMan]

From what I know, the redesigned XT23 hull is biased toward surfing/boarding while the NXT24 is more of a crossover boat, meaning it is skier friendly as well. Take this with a grain of salt, however. The NXT24 can and will produce a great wave, it may just need a little more help.

My boat weighs 5250 lbs dry, 3700 lbs ballast (400 of which is lead), I figure 1000 lbs gear/fuel, and usually 5-6 people (900-ish lbs). That puts me right around 11,000 lbs.

Consistency is tricky. I keep my ballast full with our normal crew (6 people). I actually dump a little bit of ballast when we have more than 9 or 10 people on board to keep the engine happy and to compensate for the lead bags I've added. Stock ballast is just fine with a decent crew but more weight is nice to have when your crew is smaller in my experience.

[BBFOX514]

Thank you for that, I would agree from my research and personal experience that my bigger NXT needs more help in regards to ballast. I like to go out early with just my wife to beat other boats so I will just accept I need about 1200 to 1500 lbs extra weight if it's just her in boat.

[GatorBaitWake]

I have only been on an NXT24 once with 7 people and the wave was great!

Did you purchase the extra ballast bags that go where the cooler is and on the other side of the boat?

Make sure all of your ballast is full. When the pumps stop, run them one at a time again to make sure ALL of the tanks are overflowing.

With stock ballast (and the extra bags option) if it is just you and your wife you will probably want some extra weight. I would just use one 400 pound or even one 750 pound fat sac on the side that you surf on. But with 6 or 7 people you should be fine with "stock" ballast. "Stock" meaning with the extra bags option.

[maniacmikes]

Thank you for that, I would agree from my research and personal experience that my bigger NXT needs more help in regards to ballast. I like to go out early with just my wife to beat other boats so I will just accept I need about 1200 to 1500 lbs extra weight if it's just her in boat.

Sounds like you are really diving in head first to the new boat and surf setups. I love that! Great job! Most owners of new boats never venture out from the stock settings, which is unfortunate, because some little tweaks can really maximize the potential of the wave.

You are getting good advice from Tolcarman and Gator.

A few things I have learned from years experimenting with lots of different Matercraft models:

• More weight is better in Matercraft boats (not always true for some of the other brands); but there is the law of diminishing returns. The first 300lbs you put in will make a huge difference, the next 300 makes less of a difference, the next 300 even less, and so on (I'm just using 300lbs as an example, put whatever number you want there). With more weight comes more fuel burn, more stress on the boat, less storage available, etc. so there is a trade off... where the "sweet spot" - is 100% personal preference and changes depending on your situation. For me, I have found most models benefit tremendously with between 300-600 extra pounds (I'm talking just ballast, not including people and gear) for everyday use with normal size crew of 4 or so.

• To Tolcarmans point- The attitude of the boat (listing to one side or the other vs. being level) and the tab setting play off each other. The more the boat is listed, the less tab you need to clean up the wave. Use this to help dial in the wave. Often, a combination of a little bit of listing and using less tab gives you a clean and powerful wave. But, you also don't want to dump a bunch of ballast to achieve the list, that gets to be counter productive.

• The more weight you have, the more speed you want. Surfing at 10.9mph was good on older boats that only weighed like 3,500lbs and only had like 1,200lbs of ballast... but with the new boats plowing water at like 10k+ pounds, 10.9mph leaves the wave feeling soft, mushy and slow. Unfortunately I think MC still has stock preset of 10.9mph as a legacy from times gone. I would suggest at least 11.2mph, minimum. Doesn't sound like a big change, but it is. It will firm up the wave and keep you riding on top of the water rather than plowing through it and battling getting sucked into the curl. The bigger and heaver the boat, the faster you can go. I ride 11.2-11.4 on XT23's, but I ride 11.6-11.8 on my Xstar. Again, personal preference, so play around. I have gone as fast as 13.6 just messing around.

• Check your board setup. Board selection makes a huge difference, especially as a bigger guy. I am 215 pounds and ride a 4'7" Soulcraft Secret Weapon. I can ride just fine behind older Centurions and boats that make 1/4 of the wave your NXT will make. It's obviously not as fun to ride those smaller waves, it wouldn't be as fun to ride your boat stock; but you should be able to surf it stock with just your wife in the boat without losing the wave.

• Tabs- 100% agree that less is more. The least amount of tab you can use to clean up the face of the wave is going to give you the tallest and most powerful wave. It may be harder to ride because it is steep. It may not be clean on the top of the lip, and it won't be as consistent since it is so critical... but it will give you the most push. More tab will give you a mellower wave which is cleaner and more appealing to look at, it will also be easier to ride for riders that don't need maximum push...it just doesn't have the power. What is surprising is that 5% tab can make a big difference. So again, play around with that.

• Along those lines, the tabs are the best part of MC surf system and what makes them more functional than the competitors. As you have noticed, the overall weight, as well as the weight placement can effect the wave. The tabs allow you to compensate for those changes on a day to day basis without having to move ballast or people around too much. I run a different tab setting all the time. It just depends on where the weight is in the boat on that day. Some days 45% tab gives me the steep wave I want, but some days its washed out at 45% so I run it at 50%. I have a profile saved for "Todays surf"... I will constantly tweak and save that profile over the course of the day. For example, if I pick up 8 people and they all want to sit on the port side of the boat, I may only want to run 40% tab, so I will save that to my "todays surf" profile and run it; but then if a few of them move to the starboard side, I will adjust the tab to 45%, save it, and run it. My point being, if you want to maximize wave performance, there is not going to be one setup that will achieve it all the time.

[BBFOX514]

Thank you everyone for all the helpful posts!!! This is exactly why I joined the forum!!

[BBFOX514]

GatorBaitWake, I did not get the extra ballast bags that go in lockers of boat so I ordered two 750 fatsacks to give me something to play with depending on how many people I have in boat. I can have anywhere between 1 and 9 people on board boat when I'm surfing so that's obviously a big difference.

[BBFOX514]

maniacmikes
I'm agree having more weight as an option in general is a great rule of thumb for MC boats.

I will definitely be trying less tab today and see how that works!!

As for the board I'm running, it's a Phase Five MVP Limited Edition Chroma Carbon. 56" and I love it.